Help:User groups

Contents

All Wikia contributors have access to read and contribute to all of our wikias. A number of special user roles also exist on Wikia with advanced user rights, in order to help prevent spam and vandalism. Below is a description of these rights.

Any of these may be subject to change or variation on individual wikias.

Local level

All users on the Wikia network have the ability to view and read wikia pages. Unregistered (anonymous) users also usually have the ability to edit and add pages to the wikia, though some wikias require logging into a Wikia account first.

Emailconfirmed users

Emailconfirmed users are users who have confirmed their email in their preferences. With this permission, emailconfirmed users have the ability to email other users if they have opted to allow other users to email them, as well as requesting lost password information.

CheckUsers

CheckUsers have the ability to check another user's IP address, as well as the ability to check what users have edited using a particular IP address, and view the CheckUser log. This ability is generally only available to Wikia Staff, Helpers and VSTF, but on large wikias where sockpuppetry is a major problem, access can be considered.

Administrators

The UserRights control panel.

A recorded log of user rights changes in promotion version.

A recorded log of user rights changes in demotion version.

Administrators (or "admins" or "sysop") are trusted users, who are generally chosen by the community and also have access to the following tools:

they have all privileges from the chat moderator and rollback groups and also have the ability to:

The state of being an administrator is also referred to as "adminship". Being an administrator makes "ADMIN" appear next to a user's name on their userpage.

Bureaucrats

Bureaucrats are one level up from administrators but have none of the administrator privileges. Bureaucrats only have the ability to manipulate users rights. They have the ability to promote and revoke rollback, chat moderator and administrator rights as well as appointing new bureaucrats. While they cannot directly revoke another user's bureaucrat status, they can revoke their own. Bureaucrats also have the ability to revoke a user's bot status in case the bot is malfunctioning, but community consensus is required for the addition of users's bot status.

By default, bureaucrats are not identified on their userpages. If a bureaucrat is also an admin, only "ADMIN" will show so Special:ListUsers must be used to tell bureaucrats from normal administrators.

Moderators

Moderators are users who have additional options available to manage thread conversations in the Forum and Message Wall features. They can remove and restore threads and replies from any user. They can also close and reopen threads. In the Forum feature specifically, moderators also have the ability to manage Forum boards, move threads from one board to another, and highlight and un-highlight threads.

Having this status causes "MODERATOR" to appear next to the username on the user's userpage.

Chat Moderators

Chat moderators are users who have chat moderator status in chat in order to moderate a wikia's chat room. They are able to block users from chat, which will kick a user out of the chat and ban them from returning until a chat moderator or an admin removes "Banned from chat" at Special:UserRights.

Having this status causes "CHAT MODERATOR" to appear next to the username on the user's userpage.

Rollbacks

Anyone can revert vandalism and bad-faith edits, but it takes a couple of clicks in the page history to get it done. Users with the "rollback" permission are able to undo bad edits with one click, by using the rollback link on diff pages, user contributions list, or the list of recent changes.

It is important to note that admins (including bureaucrats) already have rollback rights by default. The right can be optional for a user to have rollback and admin combined, but it will not add extra speed even with slower internet connections. Users with rollback rights are just users who are not necessarily an admin.

Rollbackers (users with Rollback rights) can be seen via Special:ListUsers, but they do not by default have any special title that appears on their userpage.

Founders

A wikia's founder is automatically given admin and bureaucrat rights during wikia creation. This allows them to edit the wikia's skin and format. As more contributors join, it's a good idea for bureaucrats to appoint trusted users as admins, rollbacks, and Chat Moderators.

The title of founder appears next to the founder's name even if they later abdicate their position as bureaucrat or administrator, and it overrides those titles.

Bots

A "bot" is any automated process, program, or script that makes it easier for a user to make tedious or repetitive edits and actions on a wikia. When a bot is running in quick succession, the recent changes log can sometimes be overtaken, making it harder to spot more substantial edits by regular users. Giving an account a "bot flag" will hide these edits from the recent changes list (although any editor can still choose to see them by clicking "Show bots").

On Wikia, a user who wishes to use a bot should set up a separate account for it, then talk with other users on the wiki about whether the types of edits the bot makes should be hidden. After discussing it with the community, the bot owner or admin can request the bot be flagged.

Global level

VSTF

The Volunteer Spam Task Force, abbreviated to "VSTF", are experienced and involved Wikians who have administrator access to all Wikia. They also have tools allowing them to combat cross-wikia spam and vandalism. See Help:SpamTaskForce for more info, or Special:ListUsers/vstf for a list.

Helpers

Helpers consist of volunteers working to support and improve non-English wikia communities. They have most staff rights on all of Wikia's wikias and they have the tag in their signatures. See Help:Helper Group for more info, or Special:ListUsers/helper for a list.

Staff

Staff are Wikia employees and they have full access to all Wikia wikis. They are shown in Special:Listusers/staff on any wiki, and often have a special Staff signature () when they sign their comments. Staff have tools to support them in helping to maintain all of Wikia. Please see Help:Contacting Wikia for details on how to contact Wikia Staff.

Utilities

Utilities are staff tools which they use for more features. These are shown in Special:Listusers/util on all other wikias. The identity to their profile is not shown but may not have a staff signature unless if they have Wikia Staff privileges.

Wikia Stars

Wikia Stars are recognized as leaders within their communities and as experts on their fandoms. They may be invited to join Wikia programming initiatives or even, in some cases, travel to live events. Stars are denoted with a "WIKIA STAR" banner on their profile, but it does not come with any global rights.

Admin Mentors

Even though this right is in the global group rights section, this right is only applied locally.

Authenticated

Authenticated users are the official accounts of large companies, typically from the video game industry. The group signifies that the veracity of the account was checked for by Staff. They are users who are notable or famous IRL for some reason, maybe they represent a game designer or developer, maybe they're a famous musician. A user must be verified by Wikia Staff as legitimately being that important person before they get this right.

Volunteer Developers

Community Council

The Community Council is Wikia's product testing and feedback group. Members of the Community Council are selected by Wikia Staff to provide preliminary feedback on new features and products that are under development.

How do you grant admin rights to another user?

Why can't I give another user privileges?

Users cannot access some tools when they don't have user rights. If a user has their bureaucrat and admin rights removed by Wikia Staff, they cannot re-grant them back. They can be removed for one of the reasons:

The rights were abused and vandalized.

A user is inactive (by request of the community).

User request.

Found to be as an alternative account(sockpuppet).

A user was denied from adopting a wikia and still has it on a wikia for one of the following reasons:

The user was founded, adopted or given admin access on a wikia and has not waited 60 days and sneaked for admin rights by telling an admin to grant user rights on the wikia even if contributions are good.

An admin granted the user rights to a user and someone contacted a staff if a user doesn't have enough edits.

What can't blocked users do?

If a user is suspected of breaking Wikia's Terms of Use or a local community's guidelines, they may be blocked by staff or a local admin. Blocked users can't:

Edit or move pages

Delete or protect pages

Upload files

Change the rights of others

In some cases, blocked users are also prevented from emailing other users, creating new accounts, and editing their own user talk page only if decided by the local admins, Wikia Staff, Helpers and VSTF.

How can I find different users?

See Special:ListUsers and choose the "administrators", "rollback", or "bureaucrats" check boxes, and click "Show". You will also see a column showing the date of the user's most recent edit, so you can find users that have been active most recently.